“Sometimes real life doesn’t give you all the right material,” writes Jonathan Harris, “So you have to invent something that’s true to the feeling you had, the feeling you’re trying to get across, even if the thing you invent didn’t actually happen. It’s an idea from Werner Herzog. He calls it the Ecstatic Truth.”

Jonathan continues, “A lot of people don’t understand that…They get all hung up on details. Did this happen, did that happen. But it’s not always about what happened.

“Sometimes it’s more about how you felt when you were in it, what it made you think of, what it could’ve been, or what it almost was. It’s less about what happened, and more about how it really was, which is something else and something more.”

A photograph that has been digitally manipulated may not accurately reflect what was captured per say, but it may better represent what the photographer or editor felt that moment was like.

The same could be said of countless books, blogs, designs, and the stories we tell one another.

Think of the stories you tell or the photographs you take. Are you trying to capture the wrong thing? Rather than trying to capture a moment, as it is, what if you captured the feeling or experience instead?